Firm action needed on predatory journals - Clark et al (original) (raw)

Predatory Journal Challenges and Responses

The Serials Librarian, 2020

The rise of predatory journals and the dubious methods they use to attract researchers to publish in them and serve on their editorial boards is disrupting the scholarly publishing landscape. It is increasingly difficult to distinguish between legitimate and predatory articles and journals. Two views of this challenging landscape were presented during NASIG's 34 th Annual Conference. Marydee Ojala, a former academic/corporate librarian and currently editor of a magazine for librarians, outlined dangers such as pirated versions of scholarly articles and concerns that the inclusion of inaccurate and incoherent "sting" articles in Open Access journals has soured the general public's attitude towards scientific expertise. In a "fake news" world, debasing scholarly research is a potent threat to academic disciplines and to libraries. Regina Reynolds, the head of the U.S ISSN Center, recounted the experiences of ISSN staff on the front lines of dealing with the full range of new publishers and explored the broader questions raised by the predatory publishing phenomenon. Libraries, academia, traditional publishers, and others need to continue grappling with their roles and responsibilities regarding this new reality.

Predatory journals: no definition, no defence

Nature

promise was doubtful and its validity unlikely to have been vetted. Predatory journals are a global threat. They accept articles for publication-along with authors' fees-without performing promised quality checks for issues such as plagiarism or ethical approval. Naive readers are not the only victims. Many researchers have been duped into submitting to predatory journals, in which their work can be overlooked. One study that focused on 46,000 researchers based in Italy found that about 5% of them published in such outlets 1. A separate analysis suggests predatory publishers collect millions of dollars in publication fees that are ultimately paid out by funders such as the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) 2. One barrier to combating predatory publishing is, in our view, the lack of an agreed definition. By analogy, consider the historical criteria for deciding whether an abnormal bulge in the aorta, the largest artery in the body, could be deemed an aneurysm-a dangerous W hen 'Jane' turned to alternative medicine, she had already exhausted radiotherapy, chemotherapy and other standard treatments for breast cancer. Her alternative-medicine practitioner shared an article about a therapy involving vitamin infusions. To her and her practitioner, it seemed to be authentic grounds for hope. But when Jane showed the article to her son-in-law (one of the authors of this Comment), he realized it came from a predatory journal-meaning its Leading scholars and publishers from ten countries have agreed a definition of predatory publishing that can protect scholarship. It took 12 hours of discussion, 18 questions and 3 rounds to reach.

Predatory journals: Who publishes in them and why

This sequential explanatory mixed-methods study investigated where predatory/fake journals (PFJs) are founded, which countries' researchers publish more frequently in PFJs, the identity of the editors of PFJs, why researchers publish in PFJs, and what factors encourage such publications. A survey and semi-structured follow-up interviews were used to collect data. The results indicate that the majority of PFJs are located in developing countries ; 119 journals provided incorrect postal addresses; the greatest number of researchers who published in PFJs are from India, Nigeria, and Turkey, suggesting that most of the publications in PFJs are submitted by researchers in developing countries; the interviewed Turkish researchers submitted their articles to PFJs in pursuit of rapid academic promotion ; the incentive allowance system encourages researchers to publish in PFJs; and the well-known " publish-or-perish " pressure and unawareness are other potential factors that drive participants to submit their papers to PFJs.

Negative Effects of “Predatory” Journals on Global Health Research

Annals of Global Health

Background on predatory journals Research quality faces multiple threats, from improperly designed studies, ethical concerns, biased results, and growing publication costs to unfair judgment prior to scientific publishing. As strong evidence from research results might inform decision making, independently or as a chain with domino effects, in the field of health, all threats can affect the well-being of individuals and populations. The industry of research publishing is evolving according to broad available electronic means and increasing amounts of research to handle. A growing trend of open access (OA) publishing that shifts publication costs to authors has opened the door to money as a mediator that could even surpass quality assessment by peer review.

Predatory Journals: A Global Threat to the Scholarly Publishing Landscape

Journal of Postgraduate Medical Institute, 2020

There has been a major trend in academic publishing from traditional print publication to open access journals and online publication in recent times. The authors now find more avenues to publish their work than before, but at the same time vulnerable to become prey to predatory journals. The term ”Predatory Journals” was first coined by Jeffrey Beall 1 , Associate Professor and librarian at the university of Colorado Denver. According to Beall predatory publisher is one“which publish counterfeit journals to exploit the open access model in which the author pays.” The most recent clear, comprehensive and consensus definition of predatory journal was formulated in April 2019 in Ottawa, Canada by 43 researchers belonging to 10 different countries. 2 Their definition reads“ Predatory journals and publishers are entities that prioritize self interest at the expense of scholarship and are characterized by false or misleading information, deviation from best editorial and publication prac...

What is a predatory journal? A scoping review

F1000Research

Background: There is no standardized definition of what a predatory journal is, nor have the characteristics of these journals been delineated or agreed upon. In order to study the phenomenon precisely a definition of predatory journals is needed. The objective of this scoping review is to summarize the literature on predatory journals, describe its epidemiological characteristics, and to extract empirical descriptions of potential characteristics of predatory journals. Methods: We searched five bibliographic databases: Ovid MEDLINE, Embase Classic + Embase, ERIC, and PsycINFO, and Web of Science on January 2nd, 2018. A related grey literature search was conducted March 27th, 2018. Eligible studies were those published in English after 2012 that discuss predatory journals. Titles and abstracts of records obtained were screened. We extracted epidemiological characteristics from all search records discussing predatory journals. Subsequently, we extracted statements from the empirical ...